Being afraid of abandonment, or, in the least, concerned about being alone, is nothing new to our aged population.
Having worked with the elderly for forty years, I have seen them in their homes, adult homes, apartment complexes and nursing homes as they have “aged out.” It’s a progressive assault.
For one thing, we are a mobile society. Kids and grandkids can be hundreds or thousands of miles away. Secondly, many adult children haven’t lived near their aging parents in decades. This means that the grandkids never experienced the benefits and beauty of the extended family. The bond that used to be there from children being partially raised by Grandma or Grandpa isn’t always there. That means the grandkids don’t have the same connection even when they do visit.
Thirdly, many adult children are two-income households which means they fall squarely into the sandwich generation -
so called because they are caught between raising their offspring while trying to keep up with their aging parents.
The real kicker comes when chronic health challenges or widowhood strikes.
I won’t call it a “terror,” but many who have lost a partner that was next to them for fifty-plus years feel it as such. A slowly growing feeling of being cut off from others starts to creep into their psyches.
Truly, there is only one "social security."
One of aging’s great disguised purposes or outcomes is that the elderly whose faith has grown (versus fade) see the manifest ways in which God walks right alongside them - even in their “aloneness.”
He is the one who walks them into eternity. By that time, they will know the very texture of His guiding hand.
PORTAL TO HEAVEN: Sometimes the aged have no where to turn but to God. This becomes a cherished and sacred portal - much like their marriage…to have and to hold. This is not a romantic brush-off of the elderly’s problems which can be trying and long. It is the reality of a God so committed to His own to the very end.
Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone…Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God…surely I am with you always…Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Psalm 71:9,18, Matthew 28:20 NIV,Psalm 116:15 ESV